The $1.73mil Bugatti Veyron that took a saltbath via AsiaOne.com

[mothersuperior]

The $1.73mil Bugatti Veyron that took a saltbath

Being in the automotive industry gets us perks like driving cars that we normally wouldn't be able to get our hands on (read: buy).

For various reasons, some get to try more cars than the others. But there is one Holy Grail we're all dying to reach and that is the speed rocket 2006 Bugatti Veyron, a technological miracle engineered by Volkswagen.

Little wonder that our jaws hit the floor when we saw this video footage of a man accidentally driving the world's most expensive street-legal car into the shallow waters of a marsh.

A Texan driver was in the Bugatti Veyron - one of the reportedly 15 in the US - and claimed that a killer pelican had swooped too low and caused him to swerve into the saltwaters, according to reports.

According to the student who filmed the footage, the Bugatti was travelling at the speed limit whem it veered off and temporarily created a wall of water.

The video, filmed by a medical school student, Joe Garza, in Galvenston, Texas, was on his way to get groceries when the unthinkable happened, CSMonitor.com reported.

"We saw the car and were just like 'wow,' so I started recording it and sure enough, after that, he just veered off," Garza told CSMonitor.com in a phone interview.

Garza told CSMonitor.com his friend had to "slow down in order to stick with" the Veyron so it was probably travelling at around 40mph (around 64kph) or so.

The careless driver has somewhat become a celebrity - with California governor Arnold Schwarznegger calling him, along with other celebrities.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the driver is a collector of exotic cars and had just purchased the Veyron last month for US$1.25 million (S$1.737 million). The 1001bhp hypercar had just about done 800 kilometres when it decided to go for a mudbath.

When contacted by the Houston Chronicle, the dealer who sold the car said he believed the $1.25 million Bugatti will be a total write-off.

Gilbert Harrison, the wrecker driver who is currently storing the car, said the man was very "calm" and seemed to accept his very expensive mistake. If he had been the driver, he would have been cursing, said Harrison.

The man's handphone had slipped out of the car's centre console and he reached to retrieve it from the floorboard, Houston Chronicle reported.

When he sat up, he was startled by a pelican flying low alongside the Bugatti and the front tyre subsequently strayed onto the shoulder of the road.

The man couldn't regain control, the police told Houston Chronicle. There were no indications that the driver was speeding.

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[Guest angela]

another one bites the dust...

opps. i mean water...